Mechro Number
by Analyn Rockwand
Summary: The story of Gaige and Zer0 as they hunt after the vault. Based on my brother and my Co-op with some changes. Hopw you'll like it. Rated M just in case.


_**MechroMancer**_

* * *

Hello, humble readers. It's nice of you to stop by.

So, you want to hear a story, huh? One where the very fate Pandora hangs in the balance?

If not, too goddamn bad. I'm telling it anyway.

First, there was the Vault: an alien prison opened with a mystical key. To the warriors who opened it, the Vault was just a container of tentacles and disappointment. They vanished into the wastelands, certain that the Vault held no treasure at all.

They were wrong.

The Vault's opening triggered the growth of Eridium, a priceless alien element. Soon, the rare and valuable mineral emerged all across Pandora. Its appearance attracted many. Including the Hyperion Corporation.

They came to Pandora to mine Eridium, and bring order to the savage planet. Through their excavations, Hyperion uncovered evidence of an even greater Vault. Their leader vowed to find it, to use its power to civilize the Borderlands, once and for all. But Hyperion weren't the only ones searching for the next Vault's alien power.

The call of danger and loot is not so easily resisted. Certain warriors came to Pandora in droves to uncover its hidden secrets. Some would call them adventurers. Others call them fools. Most, however, call them Vault Hunters.

This story, however, does not begin that simply. No, like most great stories our hero stumbles into it out of a complete absence of luck and mere chance.

So our story starts, with a girl, and a dream…

* * *

**Chapter 1 – Arrival**

**Gaige's POV**

* * *

..Its cold...

Ah, dammit, why is it so cold? And I feel really sore all over. Like, holy crap I think even my socks hurt. I think I'm laying in snow? I can hardly hear anything except a scraping sound and severe winds. The winds are practically stabbing at my arm-

Oh god, oh GOD, why can't I feel my left arm? No no no, that's my hammer-slamming hand! And on the side, sometimes flipping off hand because I think I have a weird growth where the finger on my left hand is a whole lot longer than the one on my right hand, but still, OH GOD WHYYYY-

..Oh yeah, I replaced it with a cybernetic arm. Damn, near-death experiences really get to you.

* * *

**Some time earlier**

* * *

It didn't take long after my arrival on Pandora for me to figure out that there were two kinds of people on this planet: Vault Hunters and bandits. Since the latter didn't appeal to me very much, I was more than excited to find a billboard saying "Vault Hunters wanted!" with handsome Jack's face on it. This was the opportunity I needed. An obvious trap, but still...

I sat in the shadows of a dusty train car, feeling every jolt as the train sped along the rails. I sat with my back against the wall, with my right knee up and my right arm resting on top of it. I'd been sitting there for hours, maybe, without any kind of interaction whatsoever. I'd hoped, coming on to this train, that I would get to meet other Vault Hunters, but the train was empty when I got on. I was beginning to think maybe this wasn't such a good idea, I mean, a teenage girl like myself hunting a Vault? The idea seemed ridiculous, and I thought about how I ended up in this situation.

I was deep in thought when the door to the train car opened. The train hadn't stopped, so we hadn't arrived yet. I looked up. 4 people entered the train car, they were all talking, but stopped when they saw me sitting on the ground. There were 3 men and one woman. The woman looked to be a little bit taller than me, with blue hair and had tattoos running down her left side. _WAIT. Tattoos. On the left side of her body... A SIREN. I thought they were a legend!_ One of the men looked like he was in the military, except his uniform was worn and he looked beaten. He was built and had short, light brown hair. Another man was short, but incredibly muscular, he had spiky black hair and a long beard. The last person, who, I can only assume is a man, was a complete mystery, he wore a black, full body suit, a helmet that completely covered his head, hiding his face, and carried a long, blue katana on his back.

The short man whispered something to the soldier-looking man, but it was the siren who spoke to me first. "What's your name?" she said.

"Gaige" I replied.

"You a Vault Hunter?" she asked me.

I looked down towards the floor. "I guess" I sighed.

The short man started laughing, but the siren shot him a cold stare that made him shut up. She turned back towards me.

"Name's Maya" she said.

She introduced me to the other Vault Hunters. The short man was named Salvador, the soldier was named Axton, and they called the mysterious man Zer0. She held a hand out to help me up, but when I reached for it with my mechanical left arm, she froze. The others noticed it too and they all looked equally surprised.

I laughed and held up my metal arm, "What?" I smiled.

"What happened to your arm?" Axton asked.

"Sliced off my original arm and built myself this mechanical arm instead, wasn't hard, although I like to think I'm a pretty good mechanic." I explained.

Jaws dropped as everyone stared at me. I couldn't help but smile. There was a long silence.

"This girl is very strong / she will make a great Vault Hunter / she should stay with us." Zer0 said in a monotone, yet soothing, voice.

I grinned and looked at him.

"Haiku?" I asked.

He nodded his head gently.

* * *

That was when the _Loaders _attacked. Friggin' cheap-ass, robots made from the blueprints stolen from me.

Naturally, summoned Deathtrap, to show them that the original is better than the copies, who did such a _sick _job melting those suckers. I remember running through several carts and when I got to the first cart. Next thing I remember is hearing what sounded like Handsome Jack, then explosions then-

Goddammit! its too cold to fully remember crap! First thing's first: open eyes.

I slowly opened my eyes, my vision still blurry. From what I can make out, I see parts of the train I was in. Hard to tell, everything is blurred in white with my vision still out of whack. Though something is moving in front of me, and sounds like the source of the scraping sound?

"Great, more dead Vault Hunters. Jack's been busy," the electronic-sounding voice said.

That really sounded robotic.

My vision's starting to kick in. Time for my eagle vision to go to work!

Its definitely a small android and was still shoveling through the snow just in front of me. Small, scrawny limbs, rectangular shape, an antenna at the very top with a green light, and the voice that sounds like it would make the most patient monk in the known universe to hang himself in desperation.

"A..CL4P-TP..?" I practically whispered out.

The glowing blue eye motions towards me. "Wait a minute! You're not dead!"

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

The robot rolled its tiny wheel towards me, tossing a small shovel away to the side, before noticing another person next to me; Zer0.

"And another one! YES! Now I can get off this glacier! Claptrap, your metaphorical ship has finally came in!"

Starting to gain strength again...urge to shove my cybernetic arm into the Claptrap unit to make it shut up giving me strength. I slowly begin to rise up. Fortunately, my cybernetic arm is definitely strong enough to push me up. As I stand up completely straight up, I look at Zer0, who nodded, then down at the Claptrap unit. How is a Claptrap unit still existing? Could have sworn Hyperian's CEO, Handsome Jack, forever closed down the product line and replaced them with the robots made from the stolen blueprints. And yet somehow, to my disbelief, there's one right here, on Pandora, in front of me.

Yeah, today's shit for sure.

Claptrap looks up at me and Zer0, then says, "Allow me to introduce myself, I-"

"You're the CL4P-TP steward bot, also known as a Claptrap unit," I interrupted, wrapping my arms around myself to try to get some sort of warmth. Wish I installed a heater in this arm, but who could have known there was actual freaking ice in the borderlands.

"Wow, you heard of me! This is great! Another fine addition to my group of friends! All one of them!" the unit excitedly says. "Here, I've got something for you."

Earmuffs? Hot cocoa? Specifically made by dad somehow?

I watched as Claptrap pulls out a device from a frozen corpse. Wonderful, its like Hanukah...(She says this in gameplay, so I was led to believe she's at least part Jewish.).

"Here, take this ECHO communicator that I totally didn't loot from one of these corpses!" the steward bot says as he gestures the communicator towards me. I looked at Zer0, who pointed to his mask, which I think meant he has an ECHO installed to it... Keeping my flesh arm under my opposite arm, I take the device with my metal arm when Claptrap look surprised. At least, I think he's surprised. I don't know, I just see small flaps above his arms just stand up so I figure that's like eyebrows when surprised? I don't even know, let's just go with that.

Turning the device on, I watched the small screen flicker as it starts to sync up. Health module, experience point module (what is this, a video game...?), and the digital map display. According to the health module, I'm at a 10. And the red bar is flickering. I'm definitely near dead right now. That is pretty awesome and yet bad because if I let alone trip I fracture, like, my life - even more awesome!

Hooking the ECHO communicator to the side of my belt loop, I went to thank Claptrap but he's already gone up ahead. I start to walk, but having such hard trouble against this wind. Its almost as if I'm under water, pushing against the currents. I guess not only does Pandora actually have a tundra but even blizzards. Catching up to Claptrap will be the bit of a struggle.

That is, if Zer0 didn't walk in front of me, blocking the wind.. his not affected by it in the slightest!

"Man, this is great," the robot says, "now that I've met with TWO mighty Vault Hunters, I can finally join the resistance in Sanctuary, take vengeance against Jack for killing my product line, and repair my central processor so I can stop thinking out loud!"

Sounds like he's had a lot of time to think on this.

"I wonder what it's like to have a belly button?" he then adds on.

_Too _much time to think about.

"So, Claptrap, why are you out here? In the freezing cold?" I ask him, promoting Zer0's mask to show a red **"?"** holographic icon.

The robot turns around in a 360 and continues to tread on as I followed. "Oh, that's because I belonged to a Bandit leader out here and I escaped before Hyperion troops got to their camp in search of remaining Claptrap units. I know what you're thinking: out in the freezing cold, barely functioning in a makeshift igloo with robotic tears rusting against my metal body as I cry for hours and hours, desperately waiting for maybe the chance of living Vault Hunters from train wrecks over and over - this Claptrap is brilliant! And handsome, too!"

"I, uh, guess?" I mutter out. He better not be hitting on me just because I have a metal arm.

_Hello? Are you able to hear me? Please, stay calm. _This voice was that of a woman's, and it was almost soothing to hear.

Both Zer0 and I perk up and start looking around, when a digital image of a beautiful woman with her hair is blowing around show up in front of my, and, to what I could see, Zer0's vision.

"What the hell?" I say out loud, surprised.

_I'll explain everything soon, but know this - you're alive for a reason, and I... am here to help you._

As abruptly as she appeared, she faded away. No signal or source of where it came from.

We're alive for a reason? She's here to help us? This sounds all too confusing. I need to figure out what's going on. I look up ahead, and I start to see something beyond the blizzard. A massive heap of ice, surrounded in junk and pieces of savaged train parts. I deduct that this must be Claptrap's home in this snow. His very own oasis. Of junk.

Claptrap stops suddenly, spinning around towards us.

"Well done! Your ability to walk short distances without dying will be Handsome Jack's downfall!" he declares as he turns back around and goes towards the door of his shack.

I actually heard Zer0 chuckle at this as we walk with Claptrap into his home. Inside was ice everywhere with even more heaps of junk. But what was more disturbing was that there were bodies of people and shells of Claptrap models. It was really haunting. Friggin A, but haunting. I quickly sat down on a makeshift chair and scoot close by the fire the bot must have made. I had to admit, this robot knew how to survive with little means. With his AI and probably learning from the Bandit camp he was at, he knew what to do. The CL4P-TP - a real work of technology. Maybe this really could be the start of something - my very own bad ass legend.

Oh, Zer0's too.

"Hey wanna hear my new dubstep song I wrote? Uunz, uunz uunz, uunz, uunz, uuuunz, uunz-uunz DROP...Uuuuuuuunze shree shree uunz!" the bot half-assed sung.

Oh sweet Jesus, why didn't I die?

* * *

**Three days later**

**Third POV**

* * *

Mornings in Liar's Berg, Zer0 and Gaige have decided, was much the same as any other part of the day. Cold, wet, miserable and mind-numbingly boring. After two days of getting their bearings, Gaige rebuilding the broken Deathtrap and Zer0 hunting food, the team of two were preparing themselves to kick Captain Flynt from his fiery throne. Before that, however, there was the little matter of getting new weapons- Relying on a floating robot and a sword is not smart...

* * *

**Well, That was my take on Borderlands 2, based on my and my brother's Co-op. Now, Before anyone yells at me, YES I know I took a lot of Ideas from other people who wrote BD2 fanfics(Kromatick and Vanguard1219. Read their stories! They need to get credit.), But I needed a kick start for this story.**

**And don't worry, Uzumaki twin's next chapter is almost done.**


End file.
